Rick Springfield Recently Discovered He Has Brain Damage from an Onstage Fall 25 Years Ago (Exclusive)

Rick Springfield is sharing some surprising findings from a recent Prenuvo whole-body MRI scan.

The “Jessie’s Girl” singer, 75, tells PEOPLE that the scan showed he still has brain damage from a fall he took onstage in Las Vegas in 2000.

“I fell 25 feet, hit my head and then wood came down and hit my head, and then my head hit the stage again,” he says. “I thought I had just broken my wrist, but on the scan I found out I have some brain damage from the fall, so I’m working on trying to repair that.”

While Springfield acknowledges many people “don’t want to know what’s wrong with them,” he’s the “opposite.”

“My dad died from not wanting to know,” he says. “He thought he had stomach cancer for years and never got it checked out. When he finally collapsed one day at home, they found out it was an ulcer that burst, and he died from the loss of blood. It could have been fixed if he had gotten it checked out.”

“That was a giant message to me: If you want to live long, you have to be prepared for some bad news now and then,” he continues. “I could find out I have terminal cancer tomorrow and be dead in a year, but I can only do all I can do.”

Luckily for Springfield, he still feels like he’s in his 20s “in my head”: “Then I see people dying from old age and disease and go, ‘Wow, I’m the same age as old people!’”

To keep himself feeling his best at 75, Springfield exercises every day and eats a largely pescatarian diet. He also cut back on alcohol two years ago.

“I was drinking quite a bit, and as you get older, it’s kind of a natural thing to drop all that s—,” he says. “I’m not [in] AA — I mean, I know a lot of people it’s worked for. I’ll have a couple of sips of vodka or something when I’m onstage, but I don’t drink any other time.”

Springfield says limiting his alcohol use has had a positive impact on his depression, which he’s battled since he was a teen. He also recently tried ketamine and LSD as treatments.

“I wanted to see if [ketamine would] open a few things in my brain,” he says. “It was a creative experiment and an experiment on depression. I did it for as long as suggested, and I wasn’t a big fan. It made me feel heavy and machinelike. It didn’t change much in me — although I have been writing a lot, so you never know what kind of effect it has later on. It’s not a black-and-white kind of thing.”

Now, Springfield says he’s more interested in “micro-dosing.”

“I did acid, and that was actually a little better,” he says. “I hadn’t done that since I was in my 20s, but it was a great high. I don’t mean to push drugs on anyone, but I’m not averse to anything that helps me be happier and a better person. I could use some help in that area. I’m always searching.”

As Springfield puts it, the saying “wisdom comes with age” is “bullsh—.”

“Wisdom comes with digging and looking at yourself,” he says. “It doesn’t automatically come.”

When it comes to death, Springfield — who recently released Volume 2 of his Greatest Hits album and will set out on his I Want My ’80s tour on May 28 — says he’s learned “you’ve got to embrace it.”

“It’s not a death wish by any stretch,” he says. “But it’s important to be aware of it. I think I have a better handle on dying than I used to. I’ve faced it a couple of times, but my heart still jumps into my mouth when the plane drops. I’m not as evolved as I like to think. You can only put on the party dress, but what happens at the party is up to the gods.”